Six (Countdown book 1)

Chapter 12

It was hard explaining to Tony everything that he'd missed when he eventually woke up. He seemed just as uneasy as the rest of us when we told him that the Hunters had taken Andy. After what seemed like forever, night fell. None of us wanted to sleep, but we were all too exhausted and emotionally wrung out to stay awake. We all had our own 'beds', except for Scarlett and Mackenzie who opted to share, since we were a bed short. 

I could hear the others snoring quietly, all around me, but something was nagging at me and I couldn't sleep. I was on the top bunk, above the girls. I glanced over the edge, and saw that Mackenzie was still awake as well. She noticed me. 

"Can't sleep?" she whispered. I shook my head. "Me either. I'm worried about Andrea." she said. I knew she was worried, because she never called Andy Andrea. Nobody ever seemed to, apart from Wyatt and occasionally Aiden, who did it just to annoy her. 

"Me too." I said quietly. "But we'll find a way to save her."

"I don't know, Eli." Mackenzie whispered, staring up at my mattress, her expression sad. "This seems like something that we can't just wiggle out of." 

"We'll save Andy." I said, gritting my teeth. "And then we'll get out of here and find Wyatt." Mackenzie nodded slowly, and I doubted she believed me. 

"Goodnight." she muttered, turning away from me. 

"'Night." I replied, pulling myself properly back on my bunk. I spent a lot of time staring up at the ceiling. It must have been another few hours after that that I eventually fell asleep. 

When I woke up, I knew what we could do to get out. It was undoubtedly dangerous, but I'd been awake half the night with the idea at the corner of my mind, just out of reach. Like when you can't remember the name of the song you're thinking of. But after the sleep, I knew what it was. I jumped down off the bed, neglecting the rickety, rusty ladder. 

"I've got it!" I shouted at the others. Aiden and Tony were talking quietly in the corner. Mackenzie was staring sadly out of the window, and Scarlett was still in bed. She grumbled something at me.

"What have you got, Eli?" Aiden asked me warily. I beckoned them all closer towards me. I was suddenly surprised at how there were no cameras in the room... I guess they figured we wouldn't be going anywhere. Our room was dozens of feet up, and we were trapped in a metal box that stopped our powers. Oh, and we had no weapons. 

"I know how we can get out of here." I told them all in a dramatic whisper. 

"We can't get out." Scarlett said softly, as though I hadn't realised that yet. "The walls are power-proofed, we're at least thirty metres off the ground, and we're weaponless-" 

"No, not completely weaponless." I said, grinning. I lifted my top and pulled the knife that Wyatt had given me out of the waistband of my trousers, where I'd been keeping it. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about it. Scarlett glared at me. I swallowed hard. Scarlett had never glared at me before, and I realised it was quite unnerving. 

"And what good will that do?" she asked. I cleared my throat nervously, then I quickly told them my plan. 

"It's too dangerous." Mackenzie said immediately. 

"You don't know that it'll work." Aiden put in. 

"We need to try something." I said angrily. "We have just under three months left, and we need to get out of here, find Wyatt, find somewhere else to stay. And then I have whatever time's left to recreate the Cure." They all stared at me seriously. 

"Don't do it, Eli." Scarlett said eventually, staring at the floor. "You shouldn't risk your life for me." 

I felt my cheeks go red with anger. "It's not just for you!" I shouted angrily. "None of us want to go, Scarlett. I want to get this Cure so that I can go home and be normal with my family! I am not spending the rest of my life in this cell. You got that? I don't honestly care if you four think it's too dangerous or risky! I just thought I'd run it past you first, in case you had any better ideas. Have you?" I looked at each of them in turn, and they all just shook their heads.